Lying in the Deep

Written by Diana Urban

Narrated by Brittany Pressley

A juicy thriller of jealousy, love, and betrayal set on a Semester at Sea-inspired cruise ship, with a diverse cast of delightfully suspicious characters who’ll leave you guessing with every jaw-dropping twist.

After being jilted by her ex-boyfriend and best friend, Jade couldn't be more ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime—11 countries in 4 months, all from the luxurious Campus on Board ship—and to wedge an entire globe between her and the people who broke her heart.

But when Jade discovers the backstabbing couple are also setting sail, her obsession with them grows and festers, leading to a shocking murder. And as their friends begin to drop like flies, Jade and her new crush must race to clear her name and find the killer they’re trapped at sea with….before anyone else winds up in body bags.

Perfect for readers of Natalie D. Richards, E. Lockhart, and Karen McManus!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: May 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9780593681893

Diana Urban

Diana Urban is an author of dark, twisty thrillers. When she's not torturing fictional characters, she works in digital marketing for startups. She lives with her husband and cat in Boston and enjoys reading, yoga, fawning over cute animals, and looking at the beach from a safe distance. Visit her online at dianaurban.com.

Reviews for Lying in the Deep

[cherylk_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jade definitely got more than she bargained for when she boarded the cruise ship for Campus on Board. It is not the peaceful cruise she thought that it would be when she finds out her exs...boyfriend and friend are on the same ship.

Where the group pf characters are concerned, i did not get closer to anyone. The sisters had some sibling issues to deal with, Marcus is that person that you "pretend" to be nice to as he is always hanging around. Felix the love interest and the exs. How mean Lainey was towards Jade, i did not feel bad about all the close calls she had almost being taken out.

I did figure out the storyline before the ending but I still wanted to see if I was right. The last third of the story is where the murder mystery happened. From there, it moved fast to the conclusion. Another good read from author, Diana Urban. Lying in the Deep is a book you do want to pack in your bag for summer reading!

[twink_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lying in the Deep is Diana Urban's latest YA book and my latest teen read. The title can be taken two ways - clever.

This group of older teens are taking a learning semester on a cruise ship. Jade has been looking forward to this forever. But's she's devastated to see that her former bestie and her used to be boyfriend are the trip as well. Now's probably a good time to mention some of the themes? Jealousy and revenge are at the top of the list.

How about murder....yup there's one. Who could be the killer? Jade and her new beau are in the thick of things, trying to suss out the whodunit. But they may be suspects as well. They're supported by a wealth of supporting characters that fill in the various tropes.

Urban has melded teen obsession with a murder mystery and a nice twist in the last few chapters.

But, I do feel like some of the 384 pages could have been pared down a bit. Some scenes and events feel repetitive. The other thing I want to mention is that the teens in this are at college. Their behaviors and thinking seems to belong to younger teenagers. On the other hand, they drink and a few of them are casual drug users. Their choice of drug just kinda sat wrong with me. Seriously? M***?

[blbooks-14314 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First sentence: I didn't realize there'd be this much blood.

Premise/plot: Lying in the Deep is greatly influenced/inspired by Agatha Christie's classic mystery, Death on the Nile. Jade, our protagonist/narrator, has been looking forward to her semester at sea for years. She always thought she'd do this with her best friend, Lainey, but, the pair have fallen out. That's an understatement. Her best friend, Lainey, and her boyfriend, Silas, have gotten together. She was dumped via text message. Both have blocked her. Zero communication. She's angry and hurt and confused. She daydreams about bad things happening to both of them. She was NOT expecting to see both of them on board. She assumed that Lainey had changed her mind...and this was never Silas' dream.

All the college students on board seem to have something against Lainey--either something in the recent past, the more distant past, or the present. Lainey isn't always the most likeable in her scenes. It seems plenty of the students on board are clashing with one another--petty things really.

But after Jade accidentally stabs Silas with a letter opening--she lost her balance not having grown quite accustomed to life at sea--Lainey comes up missing. Lainey's room is covered in blood. There's no body, but, a splash was heard in the middle of the night.

Silas and Jade look a little guilty--in the eyes of the others on board. (Everyone has secrets. Jade and Silas' possible motive is just a little more obvious. As Jade tries to play detective and interrogate her classmates/shipmates, it seems the murderer may come back and strike again...

Will Jade know who to trust in the end?

My thoughts: So many things are similar to Death on the Nile. One big difference, however, is the point of view. We don't have an outsider-detective processing the scene. Jade plays the role inspired by Jacqueline de Bellefort. Silas plays the role inspired by the Simon Doyle character. Lainey plays the role inspired by the Linnet Ridgeway Doyle character. While Death on the Nile gives us Hercule Poirot's perspective, Jade is our narrator. She's either a super unreliable narrator (a possibility to a certain point in the novel) or Diana Urban's story has gone a whole other direction (definitely a possibility).

For those unfamiliar with the original, Jade might come across as jaded, unhinged, toxic. But for those familiar with the original, Jade seems much more relaxed and put together. All a matter of perspective, I suppose.

The changes made to the original murder mystery mostly work for me. It can still be a tribute to the original AND have a different story to tell.

[sennebec · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Flummoxed, hurt, angry, baffled? All four describe Jade when the story begins. She's smart, but nowhere as well off as her former best friend, Lainey, daughter of a pharmaceutical company billionaire. They used to be thick as thieves until they weren't. Even worse, Lainey's now in a relationship with Jade's boyfriend, well, ex-boyfriend apparently, Silas. When Jade boards a ship for a semester at sea, she's horrified to discover both of them there as well.
Hop aboard and watch as things unravel, leaving dead bodies, some real, some maybe not so real, treachery, confusion, and a bunch of secrets to unravel. I sorta figured out part of what happened, but certainly not the reason for it. Interesting cast of characters and events made this a one session read for me.

[alliepascal-876024 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Had a lot of fun reading this! It has an explosive beginning and an explosive ending. It starts with our main character Jade discovering the room of Lainey, her ex-best friend, empty and covered in blood, and then goes back in time to tell the story up to that point. Oh and it takes place on a cruise ship, so whoever could have done something to Lainey is still on board...

This is the first book I've read by Diana Urban, and I liked it quite a lot. Jade is an interesting, somewhat unlikable character, but unlikable in a way that I personally enjoyed. The tone with which she and the other teenage characters were written was perfect. The writing in general was good; not too descriptive, and funny at times. I liked Felix as well. Like with all mystery stories, you might get an inkling of what's going on, or how the story might wrap up, so I did kind of guess how things would go down in the end... but not all of the details. I specifically love how it concludes, and what it did regarding Jade and Lainey's relationship..

A definite page-turner.

[emily_wai_catan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book title LYING IN THE DEEP has immediately grabbed my attention; but the book cover with a bloody handprint on the stateroom window of a ship that screams mystery and suspense that truly piqued my curiosity!



After being dumped by her boyfriend, Jade decides to enroll in the Campus on Board that takes place on a luxurious ship, to pursue her new adventure of a lifetime. However, a gruesome murder happens shortly after the ship sets sail. Then, there are more bodies turning up!



In LYING IN THE DEEP, Jade will take you on a mysterious, engrossing and hypertonic adventure on the sea; and the unexpected twist at the ending is astounding! It sends the chill down my spine, and my heart pounding!



This is my first book by the brilliant Diana Urban and I loved it! Diana has the knack of keeping her readers in suspense with the suspense of stunning twists and turns!

[amym3317 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After being betrayed by her (ex) boyfriend - Silas - and (former) best friend - Lainey - Jade just wants to get away. Luckily, she's signed up for Campus on Board, a semester-long program at sea, which will hopefully give her the space she needs. Unfortunately, some of the first people she sees when boarding are Silas and Lainey.

Now, Jade can't avoid them, but maybe now she can get some closure? Only if she can get Silas away from Lainey, maybe then she'll be able to ask him what happened between them that he decided to break up with her via text and then promptly block her. It's fair to say that something is not quite right about the situation.

Then, Lainey disappears from her room, and by the looks of it, she didn't leave peaceably. All eyes are on Jade since most everyone knew about the problems between the two girls. If Jade wants to prove her innocence, she'll have to figure out what happened to Lainey and who could have wanted to harm her.

The story starts off with a bang as the opening pages are the discovery of Lainey's very empty (and bloody) room. Right away, I'm pulled in. From there the story slows down a bit as readers are caught up on everything leading up to this opening moment. It kind of puts the breaks on the momentum early on. While I liked getting the backstory, I felt like we could have gotten the information quicker. As it stands, it takes until almost the halfway point in the book to get back to where we started in the prologue.

Once we hit that point, the story moved from "I've been betrayed, I must find out why" to "I need to prove my innocence". It's full of a lot of twists and turns. Some more plausible than others, but honestly I could feel Jade's anxiety and the franticness just jumping off the page. It certainly lends itself well to the thriller portion of the story. We believe in Jade's innocence, and Jade is adamant about her innocence almost to the point that she'll take any crumb of information and run with it to the point where almost everyone becomes a suspect.

One thing that was a bit off-putting to me was the way the characters talk. I felt like it wasn't representative of how real 18 year old's would speak or think. There are other instances that I don't really want to get into because I want to avoid spoilers. But there were definitely revelations that made be take a second look but everyone else had an almost casualness about it, didn't even blink twice. I just found it odd. It's difficult to put this into words. Maybe it was intentional posturing on the part of the author. A commentary on how these kids really are on their own throughout the story and we're seeing them rushed into the adult world with the things they have to deal with.

I'll say the big twist at the end pulled me back into the story and made me very interested as to how everything would play out. I just wish the rest of the story was trimmed down a little bit.